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Chapter 27
Giulia paced in front of the parlor fire. She stopped occasionally and watched out the window at the growing darkness for a pair of men on horseback, but to no avail. The dinner hour had come and left, and she wrung her hands in anticipation. She had nearly jumped on a horse of her own and followed the men but quickly realized the flaw in that plan. She did not know the area and was surely destined to get lost.
Picking up the poker from the side of the hearth, she stoked the fire, pausing to watch the flames lick the sharp tip of the instrument, the vision beautiful and mesmerizing.
The hair on the back of her neck stood up in unison, and she knew at once that she was not alone.
Someone was watching her.
The prickling on her skin was the same feeling she had received moments before the shot had fired and she’d seen her mother; it left her feeling altogether nauseous and frightened. She straightened, closing her hand tightly on the poker’s handle, and pivoted to the window.
Right in the center of the window was the face she expected to see. Lily Cattaneo.
Somehow, Giulia took in the figure without flinching. She watched her mother for a moment, curious how she was remaining dry when it was clearly raining. The woman must be standing under the roofline, protected from the rain. In fact, she must have been standing beneath it for quite some time, since it had been raining for at least a quarter of an hour, and the woman was completely dry.
Giulia shivered. Her gaze unflinching, she studied the woman’s same dark hair and brown eyes as her own. The wrinkled face belied the woman’s years, yet she was still beautiful, far more beautiful than Giulia. Still, the resemblance between this older woman and what Giulia looked at in the mirror each day was uncanny. It felt very much like she was looking at her future self.
Except, she would never make a game of terrorizing her daughter.
Had Lily Cattaneo known the men were gone? A slice of fear ran through Giulia before she held the woman’s gaze and nodded. Perhaps her uncle’s absence was a blessing. If she could talk to Lily, perhaps they could sort through this mess.
Surprise reflected back at her on the other side of the window. Lily’s gaze followed her as Giulia moved to set down the poker and then leave the parlor. When she opened the front door of the castle and slipped outside, she was not startled to find her mother waiting for her, bathed in light from the nearby windows and slightly damp from crossing the distance to the door. They stood apart as the rain fell around them and looked at one another in a quiet, observational manner. Giulia was not going to break the silence; that was not her job. She simply stood there and waited until Lily was ready to speak.
“My darling girl,” Lily whispered in a thick Italian accent as she stepped forward, her hand rising up as if she meant to cup Giulia’s cheek.
Giulia stepped back and lifted both of her hands. She couldn’t trust the woman. Not yet. “Please say what you have come here to say. I know you cannot still be asking for the key, for you must know by now that I do not have it.”
Lily’s eyes flashed, her jaw tightening. “Is it so wrong for me to want to see my little girl? To assure myself that you are well?”
Giulia could see how the woman had stolen both of the Pepper men’s hearts. She was beautiful, her voice seductive. She was reeling Giulia in with the desire to know her. “I have not been your little girl for quite some time. And you can plainly see that I am doing well.”
“I do,” Lily agreed, nodding. “I can see you have grown to be a bellissima young woman in spite of me.”
Giulia shivered at the words. That was exactly what her father had written in his journal. “Then you must also know that my father raised me to be kind, honest, and good. I am not lying to you when I say I know not what you are asking me for. I do not have a key.”
Lily seemed to consider this for a moment. She clicked her tongue, shaking her head. “Patrick would not have let it go.”
Giulia had the impression that Lily was speaking to herself instead of her daughter, but she responded anyway. “Perhaps he did not have a choice.”
Lily’s eyebrows rose at this. “My Patrick was no fool.”
They stood in silence a moment longer and Giulia realized that the romanticized image she had connected to her mother all of these years was as false as it was absent. No longer did she see the woman who left her to be glorious and romantic. Instead she now saw Lily for what she was—a pathetic fortune hunter who would never be satisfied. The sound of hoofbeats brought them out of their collective trance and before Giulia could register what was happening, Lily had vanished without a word.
She stood in front of the door for a moment longer before it opened, and a panicked Jack pulled her inside.
“What were you doing out there?” he asked, his frantic gaze searching the dark before he closed the door. “Tilly could not find you anywhere.”
She could not find the words to explain the distinct loss of simultaneously confirming her fear that she had not been missed these last sixteen years and letting go of her small hope that her mother had not, in fact, chosen to walk out on her and never look back. Her face crumpled with a sob and Jack reached forward, his arm rubbing her back in a show of comfort.
Since his death, she had not yearned for her father as keenly as she did in that moment. She needed his strong, caring arms to come around her and comfort her, to remind her that she was loved and needed and cared for. She found her thoughts drifting to Ames and was only slightly surprised to realize that she was not wishing for his capable arms to be holding her in that moment, but for Nick’s arms instead.
As if she had summoned him forward, the door swung open and Nick raced through, his clothes dripping, and his face panicked. “Are you well? Is she well?” His face went from Giulia’s to Jack’s and back before deeming her well, apparently, and relaxing.
Robert stormed in behind him, however, not as relaxed. “Was it her?” His voice was near thundering. “The woman on the porch! Was it her?”
Giulia straightened and wiped her eyes on Jack’s offered handkerchief before nodding.
Robert froze. He turned and looked back through the empty doorway and the wet darkness beyond. The room was silent, waiting to see what its master would do.
